What Kind Of Diet Do You Feed Your Cat?

[Neo_23]

Yeah I like the percentage info too!
I heard about Friskies, I don't like it very much because of the high percentage of grain; but still, I think all raw is better than a mix of quality dry/wet food. Maybe in future I will consider all raw Even though the ratio of wet dry I feed is like 75:25, but still.

Yes, I think it depends on the cat and the person. I think if done right raw can be very beneficial. I'm planning on incorporating some freeze dried raw into my kitty's diet soon. That might be a good way to introduce your cat to raw?

 

[prairiepanda]

Right now Jonesy gets 50/50 wet/dry, which currently consists of Nature's Variety Instinct Limited Ingredient kibble (alternating between turkey and rabbit) and Whole Earth Farms kitten canned, since he's allergic to fish and can't even tolerate foods that only contain fish oil. He's enjoyed getting various bits of raw meat as treats, though, so I'm considering putting him on raw. First I'd like to see if he can have shellfish, though (the allergens in shellfish are different from those in other fish, so he may not be allergic to both), since if he can have shellfish then doing a raw diet would be pretty easy as I could use TC Feline premix.

 

[Evelina]

Yes, I think it depends on the cat and the person. I think if done right raw can be very beneficial. I'm planning on incorporating some freeze dried raw into my kitty's diet soon. That might be a good way to introduce your cat to raw?

I was going to do the same, sort of mix wet food and raw food but I have to see how to go about feeding him raw and where to buy the meat, what kind of meat... I imagine that chicken and beef are ok but which parts... etc... Need to investigate, at the moment I am complementing wet food with Orijen and Acana pellets but when that's done I can try and go for raw

 

[Sarakate129]

I feed my two kitties a mix of dry Purina Beyond Simply Chicken and Purina Cat Chow Naturals indoor usually about 1/2 cup each a day. They also get 1/2 can each a day of 4health grain free wet foods: Tuna and chicken pates and chicken and salmon cuts in broth. I tried to feed them 4health dry foods since they are healthy and much cheaper than Purina Beyond, but they don't like any of the varieties. Their wet foods are 49 cents a can which is super cheap for grain free!

 

[Merlin77]

For my cats, it's dry food while we are away (either Nutrience, Nature's Variety or Acana) and wet/raw while we are at home with them.

 

[Blakeney Green]

My cats eat mostly wet food, but I leave a little bit of dry out for them to snack on while I'm at work.

 

[MeganLLB]

They eat wet food and dry food with freeze dried raw mixed into the kibble.
For the wet:
Dave's
Redbarn
Hound & Gatos
Tiki Cat
Fancy Feast

The Dry:
Instinct Raw Boost
There's also a bit of Vital Cat freeze dried raw mixed in because I had it left over.

 

[himawari]

I do commercial raw food with some wet canned food. I wish I had the freezer space, patience and time to do homemade but I don't. But that's definitely something I will do in the future since raw food is expensive.

 

[fiorya]

I feed both of my cats wet food. Sometimes I pick up Science Diet dry for my kitten. She doesn't like wet food very much. I don't think she eats enough when she's only eating wet food.

I tend to switch between wet foods a lot. My cats like different foods, so it's hard to pin down a rotation. And my kitten will get tired of a brand after 5-10 cans of it.

Current wet food brands:
Hound & Gatos lamb - tried the trout, too, but they thought it was disgusting
Fancy Feast kitten
Holistic Select chicken (but only my adult kitty eats it)
Ziwi lamb (But only my kitten eats it. My adult kitty projectile-vomits it up within a few minutes of eating it, even just a bite.)
Canidae Pure flaked varieties (only my kitten eats it)
Canidae Witty Kitty (only my kitten eats it)
Wellness Core chicken chunks (kitten kind of eats it)
Wellness pates and minced (both cats will eat it sometimes, but they don't like it very much)
Instinct salmon
Fancy Feast purely chicken (kitten eats it as a snack)
Soulistic chicken in gravy (kitten eats it as a snack)

 

[himawari]

fiorya That's so weird about Ziwi Peak. Do they only vomit on the new formula or did they vomit regardless? My friend tried that on her little kitten, and she was fine with the old formula. The new one though she vomited out. And do you terribly mind posting/sending me a picture of the Hound & Gatos? I finally found a local store (a few miles away from me that is) that sells it but I'm not too sure. Out of the wet foods you feed, which one is it similar to?

 

[Rowan_1102]

I recently switched my girls' diet to all wet food. They get fed 4 or 5 times a day depending on my school schedule and how early they wake me up in the morning!
Currently they're eating;
Fancy Feast Classics
Evo canned
Taste of the Wild (occassionally)

They have been having issues with soft stools since the switch. Might try adding in a little dry food to see what happens? Need to do some more research!

 

[Neo_23]

I recently switched my girls' diet to all wet food. They get fed 4 or 5 times a day depending on my school schedule and how early they wake me up in the morning!
Currently they're eating;
Fancy Feast Classics
Evo canned
Taste of the Wild (occassionally)

They have been having issues with soft stools since the switch. Might try adding in a little dry food to see what happens? Need to do some more research!

Wet food shouldn’t cause soft stools. It may be that the switch was made too fast or it could be a reaction to an ingredient (or a parasite if they are outdoor?).

 

[HungryPandaCat]

For those on a full wet diet, may I ask how old your cats are and their dental condition? My friend's 17 year old cat had to get all her teeth removed due to severe gingivitis. I currently have 1 kitten on a full wet diet and 1 on wet and free fed dry (didn't want to waste the dry food I bought). I plan on brushing their teeth weekly though I wonder if that is enough to prevent gingivitis.

I was also told that they become lazy chewers from eating wet food. One of my kittens has a really small mouth so I've been smushing the wet food into smaller chunks for her.

 

[Tasdidalvi]

I feed Orijen dry food (the Cat and Kitten formula) and Weruva wet food (I rotate between different flavors of their Cats in the Kitchen recipes). While there isn't one perfect diet that will work for every cat, Angel has thrived on this diet. I transitioned her to it fairly recently from Simply Nourish Source dry food and Nulo wet food. Since transitioning, she has much more energy than before, and she has finally started losing weight (in a good way).

 

[fiorya]

fiorya That's so weird about Ziwi Peak. Do they only vomit on the new formula or did they vomit regardless? My friend tried that on her little kitten, and she was fine with the old formula. The new one though she vomited out. And do you terribly mind posting/sending me a picture of the Hound & Gatos? I finally found a local store (a few miles away from me that is) that sells it but I'm not too sure. Out of the wet foods you feed, which one is it similar to?

I've only tried the new formula of Ziwi, so not sure. But yeah, I was really disappointed. I'm thinking it's the mussels, though. She's never had them before Ziwi. I tried adding just a quarter of a teaspoon to a meal, to see if maybe she needed me to introduce it more slowly. But she still vomited that up.

Here's the Hound & Gatos lamb:


I'd say that the consistency is similar to some of Instinct's flavors.

The trout has more of a soft/liquid texture:

 

[Neo_23]

For those on a full wet diet, may I ask how old your cats are and their dental condition? My friend's 17 year old cat had to get all her teeth removed due to severe gingivitis. I currently have 1 kitten on a full wet diet and 1 on wet and free fed dry (didn't want to waste the dry food I bought). I plan on brushing their teeth weekly though I wonder if that is enough to prevent gingivitis.

I was also told that they become lazy chewers from eating wet food. One of my kittens has a really small mouth so I've been smushing the wet food into smaller chunks for her.

My kitten has only been on all wet for just over a month so I can’t really comment on that. But, there are many many cats who eat dry food who also have gingivitis. Also, I do brushing daily. I think if you can it would be more effective to do it on a daily basis.

I’m not worried about the chewing thing. Most cats don’t even fully chew their dry food when they eat (if at all). And you can give them dry treats if you’re worried about it.

 

[krys09]

My 3 year old cat gets 3 meals wet, and 1 meal dry. Would love to feed her only wet, but I'm not home during the day and I think 9-10 hours is too long for her to go without food - so she gets one small meal of kibble through an automatic feeder. Rotation of wet from Wellness, Merrick, and Weruva, and her kibble is Orijen Cat & Kitten.

 

[lalagimp]

But, there are many many cats who eat dry food who also have gingivitis.

Yep. Yue's gingiva were pretty red and scary looking so I made a plan this year to get her a teeth cleaning with Tommy. She's eaten dry all her life and they are both 8 years old. When I got her back, they had said her gums were really sensitive and had some bleeding during the procedure, so I started putting out 1 5.5 oz can of wet per day alongside their dry. I think she's eating both, or at least mainly canned now. She always loved the stuff as a treat so basically I took her out for a teeth cleaning and she's been getting ice cream ever since.

 

[Rowan_1102]

Wet food shouldn’t cause soft stools. It may be that the switch was made too fast or it could be a reaction to an ingredient (or a parasite if they are outdoor?).

I read somewhere that it could cause diarrhea but it probably wasn't from a reliable source. They have recently been dewormed and are inside cats. I noticed this morning their stools seem to be hardening finally! Likely I did change their diet too fast. Since my one was puking I wanted to get away from the dry food fast!

 

[Neo_23]

I read somewhere that it could cause diarrhea but it probably wasn't from a reliable source. They have recently been dewormed and are inside cats. I noticed this morning their stools seem to be hardening finally! Likely I did change their diet too fast. Since my one was puking I wanted to get away from the dry food fast!

There is a lot of misinformation about wet food on the Internet. Most cats have healthier and fewer stools on wet food than dry. And stools are even healthier on raw. I would suspect that it may have been that the diet was switched too quickly. Maybe take a few steps back and reintroduce it more slowly.